Document Type : Review Paper

Author

• Israa Mahmood Ali

Iraqi Ministry of Education

Abstract

Soil is one of the main resources that human beings rely on to survive. Since petroleum hydrocarbons are used more widely over the world for energy and raw materials in many applications, a wide range of pollutants have been released into the environment. In addition, accidental emissions of petroleum products have been causing serious soil pollution and deteriorating soil quality. Numerous global ecological, environmental, and health problems are the outcome of this pollution. Efforts are intensifying today to develop methods for treating soil contaminated with petroleum essentially to restoring soil function and recover the ecosystem. This paper reviews several in situ or ex situ treatments techniques including thermal, physico-chemical, biological methods and these treatment methods involve other techniques and strategies that combine between two techniques in order to increase the removal efficiency also had been reviewed. Each technology has advantages and disadvantages and depends on several factors that affect its efficiency. Therefore, to choose the appropriate technology, it is important to study and understand each technology separately, and the other factors that affect it, and when we need to combine two or more technologies.

Keywords

• petroleum contaminated soil
• soil remediation methods
• soil pollution